1. One woman killed her husband's sister. They shared an small apartment and had lots of arguments. Allegedly after a fight over inheritance, the woman killed the relative, then sealed the dead body with concret in her room. Somehow her husband didn't notice his sister didn't come out from her room for three days, until the company the sister worked for began to worry for her. 2. A controversial writer died. He had been a political prisoner in martial law era and a lawmaker later. 3. Coal power plant expansion program got into controversy.

>>14607You have to get up you don't have a choice on that. But you can influence how you will do it. You can be tired and unsuitable to face the day or fresh and focused, ready to make it how you like it to be.

Today I want to tell you. Republic of China is a mistake. It's created by USA miscalculation during Korean War. It's not in USA or the regions best interest. I am not pro independence or anything. But ROC's gain is USA's losss

Guess Who, a PTS program, gets English dubbing and subtitles. It seems they want it to be a showcase for foreigners. https://youtube.com/watch?v=4G8FanAR15E [Embed]This episode is about a family with ADHD kidThe season 9 was better. It has a family on a remote island

A fire broke out in a print circuit board factory. two Thai workers died. Five firemen died. 2 more are still in critical condition. The boss of the factory denied that he gave wrong information to the firemen.

A man broke into a dentist clinic and killed the dentist. It's reported that he is the brother of an assistant who works there and he is mentally unstable. He had shown up in the clinic before and asked the assistant for money.

I guess this will make it harder for mentally ill people in general. The employers would not want to hire man with relatives now. So relatives would cut ties from mentally ill relatives

1. One 14 yo girl ran away from home two moths before school placement exam. She came back home and soon committed suicide. It's suspected that she had been raped. Then one video appeared online. It was a gang beating up a young man who confessed to the camera that she raped the girl and deserved to be punished by the gangsters 2. One 5 yo girl died and her injury implied she was raped. Her uncle was suspected. Today 300 random people gathered and stormed the man's house and terrified the grandma.

Last piece of news today. Top High schools of the island reported that this year there is a surge in number of students who applied for top universities in mainland. This seems to be the result of rise of those schools ranking and international reputation. But they may also be attracted by the preferential treatment mainland government promised to people on island. This news follows a previous national controversy on our government tried to ban officials from taking jobs in mainland schools

Now our schools don't seem to admit Chinese diploma and certificates I might be wrong about that. Our laws also prohibit agencies from recruiting students for mainland schools

>>16664There are already one or two millions Taiwanese working with kids in China and they reported they got no problems with mainland's emphasis on official political ideals in workplaceTaiwanese agrees that China is about market economy now, and are ok with mainland being governed by communist party. So they got no problem with that part. The only thing that makes them uncomfortable is the controversy between unification and Taiwanese nationalism, which isn't a problem of indoctrination. It seems the more you teach about it the more they hate it.

There are many things in china we can learn from. Computer application. Mobile payment like Alipay or something. Good translated books. Chinese literature and cultures. Railroad tech maybe. I just heard that their environmental laws and air pollution control are admired by Taiwanese environmentalists.

Five years ago I heard a professor complaining that our grad students still have stereotypical ideas against china and don't want to go there even when the schools there are top ranked in the world. Now there is this "controversy" I think it's a good development.

There might be a problem when our kids entered their best schools with preferential admission policies though. People generally look down upon classmates who got there by preferential policies. This might add more stereotypes among mainlanders about Taiwanese people.

>>16671It's hard to tell. It seems Taiwan had some leads in computer chips. But it's unlikely that Taiwan is ahead of China in every industry. Besides we are prepared for China getting ahead of us with their economic growth etc. the railway tech is probably china's strength. If we build another MRT system we might hire a Chinese contractor. Solar panels and wind turbines...I am not sure whose is more efficient. I only know that China had deployed more. It seems safe to say their software development is ahead of us. Most softwares you get their versions first. Their search engines seem better too

>>16698Taiwanese people seems to prefer independence. For this reason the news we report from Hong Kong are all negative about their integration. Objectively speaking there should be some good integration. The hongkong Chinese co production movies are the only success I can think of.

News today1. A man went to a guy's house to collect debt. The guy has set up a "private temple" in his house (I don't know how to translate this. It means the temple is set up without consensus of other temples)The guy's father illegally owned a pistol and he used it to shoot dead the debt collector and is arrested. It probably doesn't count as self defense.

2. An old man is arrested for killing his wife. They have been disputing about division of property and divorce for a long time. The old man killed his wife and dismembered her and hid it in his house.

3. A young man killed his gf and hanged himself. The woman is said to work in a foreign company and had degrees in foreign language from our two most prestigious schools. The guy used to work in a gym as a coach. The guy had one divorce and was accused of doing domestic violence. The guy seemed to killed her in their apartment suite, then dismembered her and bury the parts in apartment garden. He then hanged himself in a hotel room.

Is there any chance for a Han Union - ethnically Chinese territories uniting in a non-authoritarian community?
Cantonese, Hokkien, Shanghainese and other Chinese languages and cultures shouldn't dissapear. Also controlling the Tibetans and Mongolians and other minorities must be more work than it's worth it. Having a ceremonial Emperor could give a common base.

>>16709>It probably doesn't count as self defense. Probably. Kek.Otherwise interesting to read both about the events in the life of little people and the interaction between the two Chinas.Here we don't know or hear much about that corner of the world. To sum up what we usually know:1. China now is half commie half capitalist2. Taiwan is capitalist3. both grew economically in the past decades a lot4. both has fast development in tech5. both produces inexpensive but not durable and/or unreliable stuff in large quantities, "lot, cheap" as we say it6. China show much interest in Central Eastern Europe, but mostly talk and less walkUmm that's it.One Hungary related: we sell citizenship to Chinese people by the dozen, which equals to EU citizenship.

>>16706Hong Kong is wonderful because it has capitalism and plenty of money.If information becomes ambiguous like integrated mainland China and crafty acts by the government are accepted, the merit of Hong Kong will decrease.>>16672After introducing German and Japanese vehicles, China's railroad just improved the width etc.Computer applications could be developed with a closed constitution that does not care about trademark rights and closeness that almost domestically achieves.

1. In 2015, Supriyanto, an Indonesian fish worker, died on a far field fishing boat under Taiwanese crew and owner. It wasn't prosecuted by Taiwanese prosecutor and Indonesian reporters claimed that it was prosecutor's negligence (they didn't translated video in cellphones correctly)Last week an Indonesian crewman came forward to testify that Supriyanto was abused to death. 2. Local gangsters were filmed extorting rents from poor taxi drivers. Those who paid were given a wasp sticker and allowed to operate. 3. Local gangsters set fire in KMT party's one local headquarter.

>>16782That's a good question. Maybe they get rations. Food and coal/oil/wood/electricity/hot water/whatever they can survive on for a while.But how they don't have such, it's a commie country it supposed to have all kinds of social security or how it is called.

>>16772How about organized crime on Taiwan? Are there triads and stuff like that?

>>16786Jesus.I think in the country they live how they lived through the ages, working till the grave and probably the local community, the village might help them in a way or other. Or not because it sounds somewhat... umm... romantic notion maybe.

>>16783>>16782On this problem I only heard hearsay: peasants don't have pension so they work on the day they die. I have heard similar stories in Taiwan: peasants work scrap jobs in their 80s but I am too indifferent to them so I can't confirm. Not sure how communist subsidies work. In the past there was a hot topic about peasant villages disintegrated because young people moved to cities to work and their elders and children were left behind in villages. They were not abandoned because the migrant workers still send back remittance but they don't have young people around in villages.

We have "triads" (the term seems to be specific to hongkong/USA ). They are very active here. They infiltrated the local interest: irrigation resuource association in farming towns and land development project in cities. Public construction. Drugs. Prostitution. And they infiltrated the local temples.

>>16842It's that day again. June 4th on Monday. Komica becomes Loren politicized and anti China. But I guess it should also because the users have aged. Besides anti China its topics about wage slave and suicide jokes.

>>16842>peasant villages disintegrated because young people moved to cities to work...Now we have similar settis. In small country towns and villages there aren't any job opportunities and young people move to large towns (mostly to W-NW Hungary), Budapest or Western Europe. Some just to work there and send money home, some finally. Only old people and gypsies remain, pensioners and public workers (no free moneyz, gibsmedats nowadays at least).Thing is they don't make their opportunities and everyone is waiting for some employer to show up. Ofc there are legal-political obstacles make it hard for entrepreneurs to emerge and do their own thing.

>>16843>Komica becomes Loren politicized and anti China.I have no idea what that means.>KomicaI googled that. That's an imageboard?

Today's news:1. One Indonesian nurse/caretaker gave childbirth in the house of the employer. According to ROC laws these children are not ROC citizens. What often happens next is the employer would fire her and she would be deported2. One marine soldier was shot by gangsters when he was on leave. He was killed when he was filling his car in a gas station. The police tracked the gangster who killed him, who claimed that he mistook the victim to be the man whom his girlfriend cheated with. But I don't believe it. gangsters often claimed they killed the wrong man and denied they have anything to do with the victims to hide the true motive. They would create confusion and offer police a low ranking gangster as scapegoat

>>16937I have seen that movie. Not bad. There was another movie about the victims. Because it's about victims I didn't care so I didn't watch it. I heard that Indonesia has changed and people care about this more and more and this movie is their signal. But I don't know anything about Indonesia.

>>16881Maybe it's a community thing. People could turn more easily/openly to them with their problems so they can solve it in exchange for money or favours. Or perhaps they can access to governmental funds or other.We'll see if Taiwanese Bernd has more info on that.

>>16881Sorry I didn't see your question earlier. Not sure if infiltrate is the right word. It implies the temples were there before the gangsters. Zhenlan temple in Taichung is a famous example of the old temples. It was a major temple in a rich countryside. The temple collect fees and "tax"(not sure if that's the right word) from local households inside its "parish". If you live there you have to pay it. The temple also served as gathering place for locals, attracted vendors, and raised funds for local constructions. Naturally rich and powerful figures in local factions tried to control the temples to match their status. Then in 1997 a very infamous gangster boss got elected to chair the temple. So in this case you might say the gangster infiltrated the temple. After that the society changed greatly. The Zhenlan temple became internationally famous, and it got much more money from donation from non residents and tourists. The boss continued to chair the temple, became legit, and got elected to become a lawmaker in parliament. Chinese people laughed at us for that. He now passed his seat to his son. That is the case of an old temple.

But to my understanding many new temples were established by new gangsters. I don't think the new temples can collect money from local residents. The rumor is that the money in these small irregular temples comes from the gangsters' operation and the temple is just a front for money laundry.

One more connection between gangsters and temples is that gangsters often work and pay for the temple's parade performance. Different performance troupes from different temples often have brawls for territory of the temples.

One more thing I can think of, is that temples are very very important political centers (at least in countryside). I don't know how it worked but in current election system the local factions (business, industry and politicians) and major temples work closely. Local factions seem to control vote captains and can influence local and national elections. That's why local and national politicians must visit major temples, for both PR and other effects. Most of our presidents are Christians but they all offered incense in temples (an act strictly prohibited by local churches)

Before this year I didn't know good safety is such a politically charged business. There is a semi official job in Taipei in charge of a farm produce company and now its operation is very political. I don't want to talk about it though. These kinds of things make me feel I am wrong.

So there is a big company called Taipei Farm Produce Transportation. It's a semi official company that supplies most produce to the big city

Its last boss was a KMT politician and the current one is DPP's pick. The KMT makes a huge controversy to challenge the current manager's credential.

Komica, a very independence minded imageboard, has this post that educated me about this company. It argues that the company is a guild-like market of produce wholesalers. It argues that originally the produce wholesalers were all independence minded local residents, and supported KMT's opponents. Then in 70s KMT disrupted the market and inserted many pro-KMT mainlander wholesalers into the market. The post described the mainlanders, from wholesalers to civil and military officials as greedy, profiteering and incompetent. It described the KMT managers as a sweet talking muscle man from a ruthless mainlander gang, and he has no managing skill other than causing price fluctuation that made him and his allies rich at cost of farmers and consumers.

Reading this kind of thing depresses me because I am a mainlander myself, but everything that sounds reasonable to me criticizes mainlanders in Taiwan.

I am now watching a mainland show called Jin Xing Show. It features "China's first male to female transsexual talent" as a host interviewing a Chinese singer called Sun Nan. My biggest problem with it is not for some reason the Taiwanese channel blocked all the product placement on screen.

Speaking of tv show: I once told a friend that I like to watch Japanese infotainment/variety show from Videoland Channel. That friend told me: "Me, too, Anon. I watched one show from that channel too. It's called 《跟拍到你家》(家、ついて行ってイイですか). Its format is to send the camera crew to talk to random commuters who go to Tokyo train station to go home, and ask if he or she allows the crew to go home with him or her and make film. "So this time they followed a poor looking old man to his bachelor apartment. It was a messy room. The old man told the crew that he never worked any formal job, and he had been always trying to pass the civil servant exam for all his life. "Anon, this old man isn't mentally challenged or disabled. And he knows many knowledge and current issues. But he never applied his talents to anything relevant. He never entered the society. Don't be that old man Anon."That's probably the last time I talked to him

>>17086Kuomintang still exists? Well, I've lack some knowledge in case of Taiwan.I also not sure if I see this straight.So the Taiwanese people comprises of several backgrounds. Most of them Chinese, but some non-Chinese. I know (if this is correct) that after the commies took over in mainland China a certain amount of people fled from there to Taiwan. So are there "original" Taiwanese Chinese and mainlander Chinese? Or every Chinese on Taiwan counts as mainlander as they aren't natives?

>>17087>That's probably the last time I talked to himI had occasions I got angry on some of my friends and stopped talking to them but in the end we reconciled and I feel that for the good. Friends are rare and words are just words.About what he said I think he didn't want to wrong you, it sounds he meant as a good advice. Tho it doesn't feel too Buddhist thing to say.

>>17107It's not like that. We just haven't met since last month. I appreciated what he said.

In Taiwan there were once two major political labels. One is called islanders. They were Chinese who settled on the island since 17th century. They claimed that they have been separated from the mainland long enough that they don't count as Chinese anymore. Then there were people who identified themselves as mainlanders who came in 1949 with KMT. They said they accounted for 10% of population. The islanders and mainlanders struggled many times and had deep hatred for each other. That's how I understand most news in Taiwan. The problem is the labels are too convenient to be applied and distorts the real nature of the news.

Yesterday's news. The prince of eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) graduates from a university in Taiwan. The king and queen came to the graduation ceremony. eSwatini is the only state on Africa that have diplomatic tie with us (after two other states broke up with us in favor of mainland last month)People generally have bad impression for these ties, believing that they are maintained by corrupting bribes. 2. Another minor fire broke out in an apartment (subdivided into many small suites). No one died this time. 3. The government is going to ban the practice of setting the employee dormitory and factory in the same building. Especially the dorm for foreign workers.

Yesterday I skimmed a few pages of three books. The first one is about the history of a small minority nation in Chinese history. The book has dramatization in its titles and contents, and the author is introduced as "author of popular online novel". The funny thing is I guess the writer is a PRC citizen but the introduction didn't mention it.

The second and third books I skimmed were written by Yanagi Soetsu and translated by a Mr Xu. It talked about that he defined "folk art" as useful and affordable products, and it has to be well made not crudely made. It fits my stereotype of Japanese products. The clay cups and lacquer discs, the useful stationary products etc. they are well designed and lovely and give me a very positive impression about Japanese people. In Taiwan I often see this comparison between japan and china. MIJ is good and cool. MIC is miserable etc. I never made a serious comparison but I have this vague impression.

The funny thing is about Mr Xu the translator. the second book is published in Taiwan and the third one is published in China. The Chinese book has Mr Xu's introduction, about how he learned about Yunagi's work in China since mid 1970s (after japan resumed ties with China I guess), how he translated Yunagi's articles and published them in China, which Chinese publishers helped him etc. the second book is obviously reprinted in Taiwan without authorization of Mr Xu and only vaguely described him. It seems we have been reading lots of books from china. Both translated and original works. These books taught some Taiwanese people about the history, the world, even about Japan. But our publishers always conveniently ignored the facts that they came from china.

>>17116>booksSome book sellers here do the following: they buy a few books from the publishers, and send one copy of every book to China where they make copies, forgeries for them in high volume for peanuts in return.

>>17197>On Komica there is now a strong hate against China and favor for japanHow come? Were they previously friendly to China? Komica is a Taiwanese chan, right?Previously you wrote they are mock the wage slavery of China and suicide.

>>17116Do you read European books? Is there mandatory literature in school, a list a books every student have to read?We have such and all European from antiquity to our day and age.

>>17202 I can only say a imageboard is often complicated, but the apparent hate against China is very apparent. I don't think the board was ever friendly toward china but I remember before the hate isn't that emphasized.

I haven't been in school for a long time. But in primary school we had encouraged reading list (semi mandatory) when we can pick from a list of translated western fiction classics: wrath of grapes, Jane Austin etc. this is intended to encourage "reading" in general and focuses on Chinese language skills. then perhaps in highschool they read Jane Austin in English perhaps. This is to train English. Not very familiar with how it works now. They have much better foreign language training now. Second foreign language: Japanese. French. or southeast asian ones. They have more in-depth class for everything now. Ethics, social studies, geography etc.

But I wasn't a good student before so I can't make good comparison. Never read any Plato, Jane Austin, Dante, or Adam Smith myself (but I saw other kids reading them)

Today's news:1. A dozen Vietnamese migrant workers gathered in Taiwan to protest the Vietnamese government's "special economic zone" project because they think Chinese firms will win the bid and control the project. 2. In a related news, Taiwanese owned firms operating in Vietnam reported that there are many mass protests inside Vietnam. Though the protests are against the economic zone project, many worried it would turn into an aimless anti-Chinese riot and the Taiwanese firms would be smashed like two years ago. 3. A teacher is reported to have labeled students and used "bullying" to promote grade performance. 4. Teachers union gathered to petit for compensation because their pension was cut. 5. A controversy about government trying to ban plastic straw

>>17219I cannot represent ordinary people. Politically, KMT once had close relation with soviet but later they treated soviet as enemy and censored or demonized everything about it. I can't forget one mistake in my high school chemistry textbook which called Mendeleev " from Soviet Union" that's probably caused by lack of info.

On the other hand translated Russian classical novels were highly valued. Karamazov brothers and three sisters were recommended since 1970s.

There were also recent interest in trades, tourism, interest about how post communism states developed. Interest of dating Ukrainian brides etc.

The most recent memes..., I don't know where it came from but I saw it on cable tv. They called Russians "warrior race" and exaggerated the endurance of cold, heavy drinking, combat performance, strange infrastructure etc

Useless news today 1. Muslim festival Ramadan coincides with summer festival this weekend. 2. On this festival some rich temples would offer some free rice to support poor families. 3. The pension cut is delivered to teachers and professors. KMT party also rallied teachers to sign a petition that might appeal in supreme court one day. The rally wasn't very effective. 4. Communist spies prosecution continued.

Recently I read a "book printed for merit" (Yingshanshu). Chinese people once believe that printing religious books give you merits. However there are also some Buddhist cautionary tales saying that there is no merits in such a thing. The book is an introduction in plain language of a difficult Buddhist text. On the back cover it introduced the small temple who sponsored it. I used to look down on such book because they were freely available and they are often preachy and full of errors. But I did learn a lot from this one. As I looked it up later the Buddhist text was suspected to be fabricated by medieval Chinese Buddhists (not really ancient teaching of Buddha)

Finally, I learned that Buddha Siddhartha Gautama said he won't reincarnate again. I always wondered why he said that. Now I guess he was teaching people not to look for his reincarnation

>>17352Enlightenment and becoming Buddha supposed to stop the endless cycle of reincarnation. On the other hand every Buddha is the same and if you become enlightened you won't be a Buddha but the Buddha, no? And that we are different things is just a mirage anyway. Is there such a thing that reincarnation? Ehh. I'll think this through, or not.

>>17351>They want to reduce plastic waste. Not a bad idea. For medical reasons (for people with broken jaw for example) they can use silicon tubes. But when these people are no longer in hospital it might be better to use plastic straws because silicon tubes need cleaning and I wouldn't trust ordinary people that they will do it and straws can be discarded easily.

>On the other hand every Buddha is the same and if you become enlightened you won't be a Buddha but the Buddha, no?So I have heard. And that we are different things is just a mirage anyway. Is there such a thing that reincarnation? They say no

>>17363I watch TVBS and FTV news but when I select stuff I rely on Komica and PTSthe news I saw were also usually FB news dashboard cam k-pop. But komica was very bitter and would remind me of the important news. I

The road to integration. The road to acceptance. Today's news An archery teacher confessed that he killed a woman and dismembered and disposed the body. The news caused complaints about regulation and security of artists' village Taipei mayor Ko appears invincible. Some colleges closed down because they cannot attract students.

>>17408Taiwan, my Brother in Turan, it's time to join the horde and conquer the world!

What are these artists' village? Here I heard about communes of artists and scientists/engineers but these aren't nowhere to settlement level.Who is Ko invincible? Nothing can cause to him bodily harm or in politics he has very stable position?

>>17427>>17424We don't have Mongolians here. We view equestrian course negatively. Our people are only (perhaps not only) familiar with Japanese archery. The Chinese confucian and local militia archery which are also far away from Manchurian and Mongolian archery, is probably completely lost in Taiwan. They lost the appeal to young people who try to be closer to japan and to distant from china. But that might be inaccurate because I read all about them from Komica

The murder suspect's archery class is very problematic. At first the victim booked the suspect's program that media reported as "traditional culture". Later we learned that the program is called "Taiwanese aboriginal traditional culture". Today an aboriginal organization furiously explained that the suspect is only distantly related to aboriginals, and has no credential or qualification to claim to represent the people's culture. The people is estimated to have 10k people.

His case was politicized from the beginning. The suspect lives or operates on a park that is designated as "cultural and creativity industry park" (the "artist village" I mentioned earlier). It's not a settlement it's just a park. Artists apply for license to do business on the park. But local people feel they disturbed the local peace and order and introduced crime and wastes. The park is in lock down now due to murder investigation.

From the beginning the media already emphasized the violence, cruelty and perversion of the dismemberment. They also link the case with two other cases this month, and describe it as "copycat crime wave". This naturally leads to the KMT and DPP policy debate on death penalty. Generally speaking ROC has adopted international and EU conventions to avoid or abandon death penalty. DPP in particular opposes it for their human right and democracy policies. KMT however believed that people strongly demand death penalty. KMT politicians now argued that DPP has neither sentenced nor executed one death sentence since it came to power, and argued that this is shaming the victim and her family, and that it has encouraged bad people to violate laws.

When I said mayor Ko is invincible, I mean that no one can defeat him in the year end election. Ko is not a member to any party, and is said to have changed the election model in Taiwan that relied on parties. Both KMT and DPP tried to ally with and challenge Ko.

Today I saw an episode of Chinese drama. The title is "Game of Hunting" Liechang or Hunting ground in Chinese. It's about a calculative head hunting agent trying not to recruit a district chief in Beijing municipal government to work in a private financial company in Shenzhen. To do this they must understand the official's thinking and his career choice. They exploited his uncertainty about whether he is kept under the new administration, and exploited his daughter's wish to move out from Beijing, and they even offered his wife a job in Shenzhen. So they said lots of technical jargons about government posts and privatization of Chinese economy. The problem with Video Land channel is that they must block all simplified characters, all product placement and all Chinese flags. And the commercial is long. After the drama there is a music video that used Buddhist sutra as lyric and used puppet drama show as video. After that they showed a locally produced poor show. It's a talk show where guests share ghost stories.

>>17454It's just a TV serial drama. I just try to learn a little bit about China. I am quite ignorant about it.

Mayor Ko is doing ok I suppose. I only noticed how much he suppprted Taiwanese independence Ann's how much he hate KMT and mainlanders. Don't know much else about him.

Yes. The current and last administration now avoid handing out death sentence. But KMT made some high profile executions to show they are willing to do it. Personally I am more influenced by foreigners and don't see the problem of this but locals are very very emotional and persuasive about this.

>>17465The agent is now appealing the "bright side" of the official. He told official that choosing that's job would allow him to "publish English academic papers on Fortune journal" which is the official's lifelong interest. The drama also talked about the north south difference in China. The official is a very serious and politics minded. The private company who wants to recruit him is owned by a southerner. He is a business man and practice southern customs and wears stylized cloth

Yesterday I watched an episode of PTS guess whoIt reported an aboriginal man from Hualien. He is a football player. I always ignore the fact that we play football too. I also assumed that aboriginal people always work in Taiwan. But this football player plays for China League One. I always ignored Chinese sports news especially its football news. Never know that we have a Taiwanese player playing in Chinese league.

>>17492It was news to me as well that the Chinese league attracts foreign players. I usually don't watch football I was a match goer long ago tho, and I like football and sports in general and now that I follow matches I heard that this player or that plays for Chinese clubs. I precisely remember a Nigerian which isn't much surprise as China's influence grows in Africa all around, and it's a possible way for African players to go abroad and international "field".

Normal topic I used to hear years ago. "To be a great/successful/smart man you need to Ha every international perspective. What is international perspective? Do you know that the ancient city of Chang'an had a 100 meter wide road? That's what made ancient china great"What I don't understand is, if we have a bigger road today doesn't it make us greater than ancient china already???

Recently this year I also hear lots of discussion about the mobile payment in China. There are pros and cons. Pro Chinese people say their mobile payment already surpassed us. Bitter people say that is because China was underdeveloped previously in credit cards etc. even more bitter people would say they have trust issue between people and stayed backwardly in a "cash economy"That was the first time I heard the word cash economy and how it represents backwardness of a country.

>>17522>What I don't understand is, if we have a bigger road today doesn't it make us greater than ancient china already???I think it depends on the times. Back than that road was something. Now it's easier to build, it's not that great performance. However I think it's not the road made China great but her greatness made available to build that road.

I recently discovered that China's literary idol Lu Xun (1880s-1930s) is well known in japan. Japan has lots of knowledge about China. But Lu Xun is very emphasized. Japanese translation of his two essays are included in most versions of national literature textbooks. (I don't quite remember what was in my mandarin national literature textbooks in my age. But I don't think we had much foreign works in it (we did have a lesson about General McArthur though)And Lu Xun is a leftist figure so in the past textbooks ignored him. Not sure how Taiwanese kids today hear about him. One of his satirical story is in a popular textbook now. In china on the other hand Lu Xun is a personal cult)

The two essays were Hometown and Mr Fujino. Hometown was about Lu went to liquidate his family property and felt nostalgic for his childhood friend. Mr Fujino was about how much he admired his professor when he was studying in japan. Both are positive and sentimental.

The fact that most kids of both China and Japan read these two Chinese stories might be a sign that the two peoples can have better impression with each other? Nonsense. No one likes a thing because it's in the textbook.

And so what if Japanese and Chinese share similar literature taste? What does it mean to Southeast Asians, if they dislike the Northeast Asians for international issues?Oh wait, Lu Xun has been translated into Vietnamese and Malay too. Vietnam was a communist state and Malaysia an anti communist one. But still, it doesn't really matter.

>>17524I guess what they meant was Chang'an was a "international" city back then and the road led all the way to Europe. The implied idea is Chinese people (and Taiwanese people whom this story addressed to) are provincial. But don't we have import and export bigger than Silk Road already? Why does it not give us "international perspective "?

>>17525Well, Japan acquired many things from China during her history among them her taste... and imperial, also imperialistic mindset. You ask complex questions tho they worth to think them through.

>>17526Ah, I see. Still if China weren't an empire back then in the first place they wouldn't venture far, also noone would approached her from the west.But as you said, it's an empty cliché now. Ofc it's good to have international perspective and noone should forget it but as you said it's almost given by default.

On CE 582, the assistant minister proposed to emperor Wen of Sui dynasty: "ancient sage said: bad music is correlated with bad laws and order. The court music we have now follows the style of western barbarians. We should change that by following the system of the southern Chinese state and by studying the old text. " but the king disagreed: "the music of southern Chinese state is a music that destroyed the state. How can I use it."

At the time, the court music still used the same music of the previous dynasty. So the king ordered a guy to study ancient text to change it. They tried to change the tuning but it became even more unusable. So more official scholars gathered to discuss this problem. But after a long discussion the tuning was still in discord.

The king became angry: "I have taken the Mandate of Heaven for 7 years now, yet my official musicians are still playing songs that valorize the previous dynasty!" And he wanted to prosecute an official for this. The official advised the king: "even ancient sage waited a long time after establishment of the state before he established the music. This is an important matter. It cannot be rushed." The king relented, and called for people who understand music to work on it.

Finally one official reported: "I have studied the records of official musicians. They all recorded names of 7 tones. But three of the seven tones are wrong no matter how we try. But in previous dynasty, when their king married his Turk queen, Sujiva, a musician from Qizi (in today's Xinjiang Uyghur region) came to China with her. He was good at playing Pipa (lute?). His performance had 7 tones. He said his father was from Central Asia and was a famous musical talent. His father taught him that there are 7 tones and that how each tone was defined. When we applied the 7 tones described by Sujiva on our musical record, it works."

So this is an anecdote of how Chinese music was influenced by Central Asia.

>>17525While I was surprised by the fact that Japanese put Lu Xun in their middle school textbooks, I ignored the fact that Vietnam also put Lu Xun in their textbooks. "Hometown" was also the one included and well received. I just selectively notice the Japanese and ignored the Vietnam. But Vietnam was on the other side so it's harder for me to notice, despite the fact that there are Vietnamese Working in my town.

>>17532That's interesting. I thought steppe people generally has pentatonic music.

>>17534What languages do you use/speak/read/know? Taiwan's official is Mandarin. But there are other small languages as well. You use English I can see that. Others? Like Japanese, or Cantonese, Korean? And what level?Because I ask a personal question I kinda obligated to be reciprocal. Beside my mother tong I know English what also you can see, but learned some German, little Latin and dabbled for a short tiem in Italian. I always planned - not seriously - to learn other languages, like Russian or Spanish. I can recognize a word here and there in several other languages, even in Japanese.

>>17570I can only use mandarin and English. Nothing else. Most people in Taiwan use "Taiwanese" a southern dialect of Min. But not me. English has been mandatory for elementary schools for 10 years I guess.

>>17572Tell us about Komica. I found 2 of them and they both link each other but when I open those it's all Chinese to me so I couldn't get out much of what's going on.There are great many board on Komica and by randomly opening a few I found even individual games have their own boards. Is the userbase that big?

>>17576Oh, thanks! I checked out /outremer/ interesting choice of name I might post there sometimes something. Looks interesting.Here is the thread where they posted the Polandball comic above:https://komica.yucie.net/worldcup/pixmicat.php?res=35906If I would ask them who made it or where they found it - contributing with my own drawings of course - would they reply or would I get banned? Do they know English?

How come you started posting on Krautchan? Btw I'm very glad you chose our board to post your things.Also this post here: >>17532 wasn't written by you, was it? Maybe this guy here: >>17363 did?

>>17577I am not sure of their reaction. Not familiar with that board. And I am not used to seeing foreigners on main board. Some of them frequent foreign boards and have enough skills to answer your question. I don't think you will be banned but you might attract too much attention and too many English posts. Then some people might feel you are derailing it. most users aren't comfortable with English. I guess I am not either.

I just use this thread as a personal blog thing. The original purpose was to keep my English skill. I chose news because it covers things I don't usually care. Then I lost balance when I wrote it. I wanted to stay anonymous but I also liked the attention. 4chan felt too active for me. There are also komica users on 4chan. I don't like mixing the English and Chinese boards I read.

I used to avoid talking about Komica to foreigners and avoid talking about foreigners on Komica. But after translating Taiwanese news for a while I lost the balance. I guess it's hard not to talk about "friends" behind their back. I hate them and I hate myself. Choose an online thing to avoid real relations but I guess I always turn it like a real one.

>>17628 I brought them up myself. Should have avoided that myself . Those people I hate them and like them . I hope what I wrote is OC but I guess it's also very influenced by them after all. Thanks for your encouragement though.

Today's useless news in Taiwan:1. Big and prestigious hospital accused of killing two dialysis patients. The hospital admitted they have wrongly connected the machine to tap water instead of to the RO water, but insisted that this didn't cause the death of the patients2. A district inside Taipei city is finally re-designated in national land use zoning plan by the central governemnt. This would permit local residents to build and renew their houses on it. The district was designated as "no construction zone" 40 years ago. All existing houses on that haven't been permitted to modify or renew since then. It became a scrap yard and news reported that kids born there have been treated as second class citizens. The subsequent relocation and compensation will be a problem though. This is claimed as another victory and contribution by mayor Ko

3. This week is the third anniversary of the powder explosion at a outdoor party. Many injured people come up to talk about compensation issues. As the party organizer is bankrupted the local government is to be blamed. The injured also said they feel bullied by comments on internet, which condemned them for attending the party 4. Draught is relieved in the south but continued in the north.

>>17664The place is a sandbank at convergence of two rivers. In 1970 Taipei had a wide flood so the government decided they need it to be a flood buffer.

Today's newsOne convict of a high profile random child-killing case is sentenced to life imprisonment by intermediate court. Death penalty again became a politicized issue. The opposition candidates suggest that's current government intends to abandon death penalty.

Bohyo naki sogenToday I want to introduce this book called 沒有墓碑的草原 Meiyou Mubei De Caoyuan. It is a translation from Japanese original 墓標なき草原 Bohyo naki sogen. It has a recent English translation: Genocide on the Mongolian Steppe: First-Hand Accounts of Genocide in Southern Mongolia During the Chinese Cultural Revolution

It was written by Yang Haiying, a Mongolian who was born in PRC and later naturalized to Japan. I didn't read the book. I only read its promo and introduction written by a Chinese guy. He admonished us Han Chinese should read what crimes we did to ethnic minorities. The basic idea of the book sounds familiar in Taiwan: Mongolia collaborated with Japanese to get modernization but Chinese treated them as national traitors and gave them poverty, hate and killing. To Han people Cultural Revolution is indiscriminate but to Mongolians they felt targeted.

I read this book in a public library (full of exam preppers and homeless people) last year. The translation was published and promoted in 2014. It was the time when anti-Chinese sentiment was high so I ignored it. I guess I was being biased.

The book promo said it was published in Taiwan because it was no longer possible to publish it in hongkong. Which was known to everyone but again a surprise to me. The book was translated by an Han man and his daughter. The man is remarkably 80 years old in Beijing. They said again that the book reminded them that Han people didn't know what Han people did to minorities. The book is published by a company called "Gusa" which is known for publishing books about Koreans and Manchurian nationalist ideas.

A few days ago, after watching the Chinese drama about head hunting company I saw a talk show produced by Videoland channel. The show is quite poor and talks about ghost stories. The host just read us a story from Internet.

It says there is a nurse working in an abortion clinic. When she worked on an illegal abortion surgery (in this context it means the clinic didn't have written consent of the patient's spouse or guardians) she got blood spilled on her. Later a lump developed on her shoulder and it looked like a baby. She consulted a fortune teller who told her she is haunted by "fetus ghost" and needs to ask priest in temple to make offering to appease the ghost. Fetus ghost is a common belief in Taiwan. Its implication is controversial.

Thanks for the book. There were periodic genocides during the Qing Dynasty too. The Manchu rulers allowed Han to migrate to Mongolia in the latter days of the empire. Eventually Han decided to stage a rebellion in 1891 and massacred tens of thousands of Mongolians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jindandao_incident

Today I watched Chinese drama and found they use many financial jargons and English terms I need to rely on subtitles, which simplified and explained the terms for us. I also learned a new word called Xiegang "slash". Slash youth means a man working multiple professions. We have translated this book in Taiwan but I only notice this term when it seems spoken in Chinese drama

I saw a young woman today. She was wearing office lady outfit so I didn't look at her. But when I saw the textbooks she was studying I found she wasn't actually a high school girl. If she was wearing a student uniform I would saw her as a totally different person. I guess it's important to abolish school uniform so I can realize that high school girls is just a stage in life

I am now watching a PTS program talking about Taiwanese kids going to China for colleges. There has been a steady growth of students going to China. But this year Chinese government made a policy favoring Taiwanese applicants. So they expect the number to double. The program went to Xiamen university, a tier one school to interview Taiwanese applicant. One girl was from a tier one girl's high in Taipei and her high school term wasn't finished yet. She took a day of leave from school and took a flight to the school for interview. There are also many other Taiwanese Elisa on the campus. They said that inside their high school class rooms the class would discuss and share info about applying schools in USA, Hongkong, and China.

Now they are interviewing students already in Chinese schools. They say it's competitive. Some professional degrees are not admitted in Taiwan IE they cannot return to Taiwan. They also complained about cultural shocks (no hobby clubs allowed, which was a major thing to an interviewee). There is also a problem for Taiwanese graduates getting hired in Chinese firms, because Taiwanese workers are seen as semi foreigners and require extra paperwork

>>17714The last segment of the show is about Taiwanese now professors in Chinese schools. There are two kinds. One are those who can't find jobs here. One teaches political economy. He says the pay is about the same as in Taiwan but then tenure track is easier. But he has to watch out political sensitive topics. His main compliant is that while China begins to admit scholar publication in Taiwan during publication review, Taiwan still dismiss publication in China. This disqualifies him when he try to come back to Taiwan's for work

Another kind of Taiwanese are highly sought after top talents (worldwide ) they interviewed a biomatic guy who was recommended to China by a Nobel laureate. He said he liked the challenge of China

>>17717Its just my behavior. Taiwanese Elisa is just a typo. I mean Taiwanese students.

Taiwanese kids placed strong emphasis on hobby societies. they say it's important connections and self-exploration . But I don't know why Chinese schools don't have it. I read a magazine article written by a Chinese student who came to Taiwan in 2012 (the good old time when our only worry was how to assimilate Chinese students who came to us) and he said too that Taiwanese students took hobby societies too serious. Historically, from 70s-90s some political societies were important to the democratization movement in Taiwan. I have read one of their stuff in 2000s. It was quite political. Today what I heard about college societies is their doujin (hobbey) publication. But that's probably not why most people go to these societies. Another controversial topic in Taiwan schools is religious societies. FLG societies are the most active and visible ones. Traditional Christian ones are also popular. I have read one article of a Traditional Buddhist society complaining that the campus is westernized and favors Christian societies. His is because parents worry that Buddhism societies on campus would lead a student to become a Buddhist monk (which in traditional Chinese view can be as low as a beggar) Then since 90s to present day there are periodic news concerning Buddhist and Christian New religions "cults". At first it was about Korean missionary who are accused of brainwashing or kidnapping Taiwanese girls from campus to become his harem. Then there were rumors about Scientology societies. Most recently there is one master of Buddhist (he keeps his hair. Taiwanese folk religion?) getting attention, because he released video of how college kids wearing purple uniforms worshiped him.

Besides all that, there is a kind of society called "mountain service" which sends people to remote mountain villages to work as tutors or volunteers. They were once important to those villages. And probably important to aboriginal movement.

That's all I know about Taiwanese societies. I don't recall seeing fraternity like the ones in American movies.

>>17729Here if you participate some kind of after school/hobbyist activity when you are a kid or teenager your peers will consider you a weirdo and will ostracize you for it. I don't think anything like that even exist. On universities there are some stuff but not like American fraternities tho you can make connections and found relations for the future. Not typical tho.Nowadays NGOs are shunned - thanks Soros and Fidesz - and real independent civil organizations are almost nonexistent and very obscure. Which is sad and a true reflections on civil initiative. Or the lack of it.

I tried to read something about Chinese news but I lost track of where I began and got into a circle. I also watched a NHK animation describing how they invented water wash toilet seat. They had to measure with a line and determined that most people's anus are on the same spot when they seat on the toilet seat (regardless of their height).

Today's news 1. KMT Ex-president is prosecuted for selling cheap party-owned broadcast companies. People believe that KMT's assets belongs to the state. But KMT has sold three major assets before they can be nationalized. all meetings during the sale are recorded and showed that President Ma orchestrated the sale as laundry. 2. Mayor Ko is invincible as ever. neither his handling of typhoon or his comment that sounds pro-unification affects him. 3. A rich kid streamed himself speeding a Lamborghini and crashing it. The crash killed two maintenance workers and his girlfriend. He showed remorse. His father is a charismatic religious leader and sent him to study abroad. 4. A typhoon left Taiwan and hits China now. For every typhoon there are controversies over whether local government should call a day off. Mayor Ko made a right call not to call it off. KMT mayor called it off but the typhoon didn't cause any damage.

Interview Huang jin Shan of Min xiong used books store in KHS. I saw a program interviewing a Mr Huang who runs a used book shop. He also uses his saving to fund a cram-school with 300 college students volunteering as tutors. He described the school as his tribute to the the neighborhood he grew up from. He took pride in being a "self-made man" and in running major book fairs in Taipei. Mr Huang argued for "flip education". He argued that "Only by earning good grades did I flip my poverty and succeed." He scolded and demanded kids regardless of their difficult background.Huang firstly hired a star teacher from cram schools but found kids lost interest quickly because the student/teacher ratio is too high. Huang argued that these kids need adult company. So he gathered more volunteers. He lectured his volunteers that these kids are desperate and you are their last chance. You must pump up their grades immediately or they would not become interested. Huang also made a home visit and told a mom that trad jobs can be made obsolete by tech but with motivation of continued education the kid can always adapt to new jobs

Today's news1. Cabinet reshuffle. It seems to be a election year formation with emphasis on investigation on KMT assets 2. In a place known for its fruit orchard, it is discovered that a factory illegally receive toxic chemicals and bury them inside their compound. It is estimated that 10k tons of hexavalent chromium had been buried there.

I was watching a program interviewing migrants in Taiwan. This time it is a pastor named Choi. It turned out he was once the music director of Yoido Full Gospel Church. "The biggest church in the world".

Today I watched a Taiwanese movie on TV It is Spring Swallow made in 1989 by CMPC, the state film studio. The story was similar to Eileen Chang (ZHANG Ailing)'s story: a young woman married to an middle aged man of a major clan. She had affair with another young man. The clan punished her. The woman almost died. But Republican revolution weakened the man and the clan. Years later the woman is rehabilitated, but she also became hypocritical and cynical like older women of the clan.

What amazes me is that, because they used local actors to present a mainland story, the Taiwanese accent of their mandarin is jarring.

In our generation, we have this idea that ours is the culturally diverse and Taiwanese-friendly, and that the old mainlander controlled media doesn't allow Taiwanese accent. But I guess the mandarin requirement wasn't as pure as I thought. Not saying that Taiwanese wasn't discriminated. The actors with Taiwanese accent are marginalized side characters. Just saying that it wasn't as pure as I thought.

>>17858>>17878>People believe that KMT's assets belongs to the state.>emphasis on investigation on KMT assets Is there an ongoing investigation and/or pressure against KMT? From some of what you wrote - if I remember correctly - sounds they are kinda corrupt.

>>17906KMT, long story short, was very corrupted. According to the Ill Gotten Party Asset committee, when KMT came to Taiwan after 1949, they took over the public and private enterprises left by Japanese.Then in the next 40-50 years, they built a party-state system that was similar to communist system. While the party claimed this was "necessities of development", the committee said they embezzled assets that was supposed to be that of national or local government. The party is also accused of using the profit to run elections in democratic age and created pork barrel politics. The assets also created a vague sense that mainlanders in general exploited islanders in general.

Migrants. Migrants are mainly southeast Asians. There're 700k worker with working visa, and 500k (mostly women) who got residency via marriage. There are also 500k mainlanders who stayed via marriage. The general perception is they are poor and came from underdeveloped countries. They are considered lazy or hard working, and have mandarin and Taiwanese proficiency. There are also Europeans or Americans. Less than 5k I guess.

Taiwan has two kinds of working visa. One is for blue collar workers but doesn't lead to residency. One is for high paying jobs. They can naturalize but the requirement is really high. This limits the number of Europeans.

The movie part is just a personal obcession of mine. I try to find examples of Mainlanders didn't exclude Taiwanese as impurity. That kind of examples dong mean nothing to most Taiwanese though, as they believe they are supposed to be the main character of the show.

Today DPP ran an ad campaign to explain that the pension cut to military ersonel, civil servants and teachers, is necessary. This coincides with a constitutional case filed by some of those people protesting the cut

There is another major issue about "dormitory" and housing problems of college students. The issue began as a legal issue regarding one particular dormitory . But the legal issue became a target in the coming election, and the debate expanded to all students and all universities in Taipei city.

Today I watched a tv-movie that was heavily promoted. It's a tv series, with each episode running 100 minutes, and was shot in format of a feature movie. Today's episode is about a son born in a major family. The father wanted his son to get good grades to look good in the extended family. The father pressurized the mother and the son. The prestigious school of the son also pressurized him. They developed mental illness for this. The mother, while pressurizing the son, petted a cat to cope with the pressure. The son became angry, and failed the test and tortured a cat. He got expelled and the father left him and the mother in the house. They lost the original track of life and felt desperate. The son saw the mother looking after the pregnant cat and became angry again. just as he was choking the mother, the cat gave birth to small cats. They saw the cat and children and reconciled. The son then learned a trade and worked for an electrician. The mother was ok with the divorce. The son also read bible and repented for the cat he tortured.

So this is the kind of issue and message the tv station is interested in.

Today I watched an episode of Chinese tv drama. It's a biographical story about the famous Chinese "warlord" Zhang Xueliang. He was famous in Taiwan for forcing ROC generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to stop civil war against communist party and to start war with Japanese. He probably changed the Chinese history. This tv series begins with a child actor playing Zhang's childhood and focused on his relationship with his father. It's well written and has great costumes and props

>>17911So Europeans who settle in Taiwan will be most likely in high positions in companies or very specialized professions.

>>17914>pension cut to military ersonel, civil servants and teachers, is necessary.Taiwanese state spending needs trimming? How's the economy doing there?

>>17914>father pressurized the mother and the son>prestigious school of the son also pressurized him. >They developed mental illness for this.I knew this dude in high school with excellent grades. His family made him to learn from private teachers after school and do other such activities. His hair greyed by he was 18.

>>17951Today's episode is about Japanese attempted to assasinate Zhang's father Zhang Zuolin but they failed. Therefore Zhang and Japanese pretended it never happened and collaborated. The Japanese expected to make a Manchurian puppet state, and Zhang expected to stay independent between japan and Russia. The father is an excellent actor. The Japanese guy is also good. The acting, writing, props, cars and guns are all excellent.

Then I changed channel and glimpsed a taiwanese contest show. The game is to compete with contestants' knowledge on Chinese characters. The problem of the show is that it's a mouthpiece of Taiwanese government. They tirelessly tell you that the "traditional" Chinese characters used by Taiwan are the "correct" ones. And today's division of contestants are mainlander students in Taiwan. And the host tirelessly asked each of them "What's is your favorite "correct" Traditional Chinese character?" Howcome they never ask any Taiwanese contestant this question. They just want to dominate these mainlander students on TV and show that's we have brainwashed them.

>>18009Dude said about making instruments and their price/worth:>Taiwanese people have the habit of wanting cheap things.>The cheaper the better.>They don't care whether it's good or bad quality.>If the price reflected the amount of work I put into it no one would buy it.This the same fucking thing over here. Noone can imagine that for creating some things how much knowledge and work have to be behind it. Appropriate choices, experience. They just want things cheaply done no matter if it's crap or not. They are so fucking superficial. Of course if they pay low for something and they get crap they are annoyed and angry. And it's even worse if one let them a say how the thing should be done, if one let them choose some things they fuck up and choose the most tasteless and/or cheap options.

Today I am going to introduce a modern Chinese poem written by Taiwanese. I am not literature major or anything. Nor am I trained to translate anything. But I think this is a simple one. "Landscape No. 2" by Lin Hengtai 林亨泰There is windbreaker forest, beyond thatThere is windbreaker forest, beyond thatThere is windbreaker forest, beyond thatBut sea and rows of wavesBut sea and rows of waves

The poem was published in 1950s, a few years after the end of Japanese rule and the beginning of Chinese rule. Lin and most Taiwanese writers were trained in Japanese, so writing in Chinese was difficult for them, and this could be why this poem is so simple. The poem has no special implication except that it's a milestone of Taiwanese literature.

Then 60 years later, Ng Kim Chew, a Chinese Malaysian writer (ethnically Chinese. Born in Malaysia. Teaching "Chinese literature" in Taiwan since college) wrote a parody of this poem:There is oil palm plantation, beyond thatThere is oil palm plantation, beyond thatThere is oil palm plantation, beyond thatBut sea and rows of wavesBut sea and rows of waves

I think this parody is interesting because Ng also implied that it's written by a farmhand who never left plantation in his life.

All the negative news about China make me quite nervous. Its so negative it's everywhere now. I notice that the pro-independence sentiments I feel is anxiety and fear for survival. I can find an example in an online comment on a historical event from content farm. Let me give you a short and partial translation. https://buzzorange.com/2017/02/15/the-truth-of-double-ten/"Do Taiwanese really know what ROC national day is celebrating? After 1911 revolution that founded ROC, anyone who spoke with standard mandarin accent was arrested and killed. It is a genocide against Manchurians. But KMT buries this event and brainwashed Taiwanese people to celebrate this event that had nothing to do with Taiwanese people because in 1911 Taiwan was under Japanese rule"Now that Taiwanese celebrate it, do you want to hold 'Truth and Reconciliation' with Manchurians? And pay them compensation?"You are going to say: it's not my business. Right! It's not our business!"It's ok to treat China as a neighbor and expect it to adopt democracy. But we must not claim their state title and involve ourselves in their feuds."Chinese people have such a long political responsibility of mass killing. Can you handle it?"

the father of the house said he grew up picking foods offered to the graves in front of the family house. From this he mentioned that the family had always been poor and he had to do all sorts of foraging to make a little money. From this he mentioned that when he grew up he left the town to make money by "disreputable means" (a new English word I learn). That's the part I remembered the most. I have little impression on how he worked in factory and on farm to raise his family later.

I read two short fictional stories. One was written by a Shanghai writer, the other by a Chinese Malaysian. They are both about the bleak and morally ambivalent life of taking care of bed ridden loved ones. There is an old Chinese saying: there is no filial son if the parent falls ill for a long time. Both story emphasized the smell of feces and disinfection, and the boring waiting, and observation of other patients and caretakers. Both story implied that the son intentionally caused the sick parent to die earlier to save money.

I also watched Stalingrad (2013). Good movie. A group of red army took an apartment from the german army. They also conflicted with the local people who stayed under german army. It had a voice over explaining everything.

>>18040Demonization of China is getting stronger? What's the purpose? Does Taiwan prepares her citizen for war? How are the relations with the US standing?

>>18055That was interesting for me as well. We have different cemetery-culture, so to speak.

>>18114We have similar stories from the 19th century but the approach is different. In those stories the elderly members of a poor family who can't contribute to their family's sustainment anymore choose to end their own life in some way. I think the setting is usually in winter. One example from the literature the old man goes into the "Smelly" which means a cave with the smell of rotten eggs from the sulfuric fumes.

>>18115Btw Stalin. I really really recommend watching the movie: The Death of Stalin. Great fun.

>>18117Most diplomatic or political situation didn't change. It's just that komica likes to demonize Chinese people.The story I translated is just an old content farm article.They are more anxious, because there is news about chinese people having vaccination problem and some chinese people talked about coming to Taiwan and Hong Kong to get good vaccine.

There is an international well known Japanese movie about abandoning old people, called Ballad of Narayama. It's about modern hospitals though.The title of that movie often comes up in Taiwan.

I also saw a Taiwanese program about dust explosion victims. The program is about burn victims getting a long and painful rehabilitation. The victims are young.

Today's useless news1. Mayor Ko is invincible in his re-election 2. A prosecutor is reprimanded for visiting his daughter's school with two policemen and questioned the teacher if his daughter was bullied. The confrontation was filmed and uploaded. 3. Offshore island Kinmen will get tap water from mainland. Outside "Taiwan proper", there is a small island named Kinmen. It is only 15km away from the mainland. ROC and PRC once fought a battle over the island in 1958. Since then Kinmen had been ran like a military base until 90s. On the other side of the strait, the city of Xiamen has became a Tier 2 Major City. As the Chinese military grew, Taiwanese plan of defense had shrunk to Taiwan proper, and Kinmen is no longer required to keep distance from China. So last these few years they have set up a undersea pipe that drew fresh water from mainland to the island. Unfortunately, just as they were going to hold a celebration ceremony for the pope, another round of China-Taiwan diplomatic dispute started. So Kinmen county government was asked to postpone the ceremony by central government. The county refused.

Today I watched a program about sputnik the worlds first sattelite. I can't understand the technological part so I ignored all of that. All I remember from the program is what I learned from high school: it was the first satellite. I guess I have stopped learning new things. I can only be reminded what I already knew.

>>18154Sure. FTV and SET tv and PTS are pro independence. For example they call China "China " instead of mainland. However even pro unification channel TVBS these days also call China China now. PTS is more elitist. It shows only "serious" news: not sensational matters that concern the public. but they also show positive ads from government For the sensational murder and human tragedy news I rely on TVBS and FTV

But I get the most news from Komica discussion. They guide me in many cases.

>>18166Today I saw a Taiwan drama about servicewomen in military. Their hair are short. Today's episode is about a servicewoman and her daughter. her daughter's custody is given to her ex-husband and his current wife. But the stepmother lost the daughter and got her kidnapped by a pervert. The servicewoman and her female superior went out of base to rescue the girl. While the Chinese drama progressed to the part when the Chinese warlord was sent to pacify horse bandits

>>18200 I am quite ignorant about domestic politics. There is a very rough and unsupported theory, saying that in Taiwan the China factor divides the basic political camps. There are no Left or Right, Labor or Progressive or Conservative in general. The independence or reunification issue is the basic divide. Which is a nationalism issue I guess.

On ethnic issue, the population can be divided into 5 or 4 groups. The majority are Han Chinese people. The so-called "Chinese Chinese". they can be subdivided into 3 groups by languages: Hoklo, Hakka, and Mandarin. The first two are called natives. They came to Taiwan during Qing dynasty between 17-19c. The mandarin speakers are war refugees brought by KMT in 1949. It's believed that mainlanders took jobs in civil servants, military and teachers sectors, and enjoyed the benefits given by KMT, so they support KMT. The Min-nan speaking people controlled other sectors and felt oppressed by KMT. They funded DPP to struggle with KMT. Their struggle was the major news for 30 years and it is believed that KMT is lost now. It is believed that KMT tried to ally Hakka and aboriginal people against Min people.

There are about 600k aboriginal people. They used to speak many languages related to Malay and Polynesian languages, and were not considered Han people. Today they are quite assimilated and integrated by Han people. But they still have poverty and health issues and live in bad locations.

Then there are about 500k "new immigrants" who came since 90s. 2/3 of them were PRC Chinese. 1/3 are Southeast Asians. Mostly are women who got citizenship by marriage. Then there are 500k Southeast Asian workers with visa only. I am not sure if this group should be further divided.

The unification issue affects the economic policy. KMT argues for closer economic ties with mainland: integrate the industrial system with China, technology transfer, open house for investment, supply products and produce to Chinese market, open door for talents to work on both sides. DPP cautions against reliance on China: Secure technology and talents from them. Limit their investment on us. Set Southeast Asian countries as our partners instead of China.

We do have labor unions (old ones and new ones). But not labor parties. Both camps appeal to both the management and the labor votes.

There are also different opinions on welfare issue. The Pension Crisis and Health Insurance Crisis have been issues for years. But...I didn't remember them everyday. Basically the KMT party is responsible for the pension for civil servants, military, and teachers in the past, and DPP attacks it. I also heard that DPP were responsible for he pensions policy for other sectors, but I don't know if people like it or not.

On environmental issue, it's generally believed that KMT is more developmentalism and DPP is more environmental. I didn't pay much attention to that. KMT favors big industrial project (petrochemical and nuclear etc) and DPP opposes them.

In general they say that KMT is more conservative and DPP more progressive: gay marriage, sex education etc. but the main problem is that Taiwanese people strongly support death penalty but DPP opposes it.

That's about all I can say about it. They are all cliches spoken 100 times now but sometimes I speak them again for vanity.

>>18277The problem with this is that the mainlanders (49ers minus new immigrants) are in second to third generation now and survey shows they favor independence too. Another problem is KMT is basically dissolved now. So the whole Blue vs Green, China vs independence divide is probably inaccurate.

Oh and there is one more major dimension in politics. The local politics . Firstly, since 90s when Min people gradually took over power, they changed the government structure to cut power of central and give it to local governments. They also outsourced and contracted works to private business, and allow private business to build and operate major constructions.So sometimes a major national project can be blocked by local governments now. This is related to environmental issue.

The west coast of Taiwan is more developed. Inside of which the north is more developed than the south. The north has more cities, hospitals and schools. But land and food price are also higher. The south has more farming and heavy industry (now declining). They said people used to migrate to north for jobs. Don't know how it works now. I don't know about other regions. They say the east coast is underdeveloped and losing young people.

Today's news 1. TSMC, Taiwan's most famous company suspended its computer chip production because they got hit by computer virus. Their stock price dented a little. 2. The Kinmen tap water ceremony went ahead under the cross strait animosity. 3. A NEET man killed his mother.

>>18309>TSMC, Taiwan's most famous company suspended its computer chip production because they got hit by computer virus.

This is interesting. What systems were affected? If they had to stop production then I suppose it wasn't a trivial infection. TSMC fabs the chips for globally massive hardware companies, it can be very valuable to extract/implant secrets from/into chips consumed worldwide.

>>18309>3. A NEET man killed his mother.I heard this is a common problem in Asia, is it true? From what I heard, the culture of children being forced to look after their older parents often leads to those situations.

>>18320Calling the guy NEET is a mistake by me. He is 41 years old. He used to work in decoration under his father. He became unemployed 4 years ago and became secluded. He stayed in his room all day, playing game on his smartphone and only came out at midnight for dinner. The family wanted him out but the mother let him stayHe seemed to have killed his mother with a hammer because she scolded him.

I am not sure if it's a serious problem, since the reports of it died down now

Today's useless news1. 3 people died in an apartment unit. It's a big family of 3 generations. 2. One Filipino labor is caught pushing drugs to his coworkers. 3. Vivian Song incident. Basically another Tzu-Yu incident. Taiwanese actress act in Chinese movie and her promotion attracted nationality controversy.

4. Chinese Youth Corps is declared as "KMT affiliated" so its 5.6b assets are now half-frozen. CYC was originally an organization modeled after Communist Youth League, but later when economy boom and democratization happened, it became a commercial business. It owns many old hostels in tourism spots, and holds summer camps in them. It also owns offices in town centers and holds programs for seniors. 5. unionist party ("China unification promotion party") is investigated and searched by prosecutor. They suspect the party is sponsored by Chinese government. The chairman said he identifies with China but didn't take money from CPC. the chairman was a mainlander gangster and did assassination jobs for KMT. The party is a fringe in Taiwan I guess.

>>18338The college exam placement results are published. According to Mr Liu, boss of a "church themed" cram-school analyzed the results for us:

The competition this year is tight as both Admission and absence rates are low. In category 2 ("gong", crafts and construction in ancient time, engineering nowadays) 8 of the top 10 selections of school departments (faculties) are electronics and IT based. This is usual. The new development is how the EE-CS departments of NTHU and NCTU surpassed EE NTU and CH E NTU. This shows students now place the department ranking before school ranking.

In category 1 ("social science and humanities", also called "wen", which meant "literati" I guess) the laws and business departments were favored as usual. The news is that Info-Management and Finance of NCTU got into top ten selections. This shows the people expect financial business to become more IT related.

The category 3 (medicine) is competitive as usual.

The category 4 (farming and bio-tech) isn't discussed. This impressive picture is the ad banner piped up when I read this needs. It's ran by Rulin, a cram school. It boasted "29 of its students are admitted to Med NTU", it has a quiet school building in the prime location in Taipei (good for long commuting) and "the class for graduates to prepare to retake the next year's exam is open now"

Finally...it's that month of the year again. The August. They are going to remind us about Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Surrender Day. Just today the Father's Day (August eight sounds like Papa) I see a weird Taiwanese ad calling on people to respect the fathers. The strange thing is the ad calls them " generation who endured postwar hardship"The term postwar was once considered to be pro-Japanese and pro-independence. The ad is ran by an organization called Land of Taiwan. Sure.

>>18277>>18278What I don't understand is why would KMT support unification with China? The same political group - the commies - still is in power there they were fled from.I think KMT brought changes to Taiwan which benefited of it but times are changing again and opposition is eternal so I would guess with the fall of KMT a new political entity will take it's place to oppose DPP, which doesn't bear the labels (e.g corrupt) of KMT.

>>18360You asked several complicated questions. Each has many controversial answers. >why would KMT support unification with ChinaThe recent KMT-CPC collaboration began in 2000s In terms of ideals, KMT is a Chinese Nationalist Party so it supports Chinese nationalism. In the past it also has collaborated with CPC twice for emergency

In terms of economic opportunities, which is also the base of KMT's political platform, the rise of China is a great chance for all Chinese.

In terms of votes calculation, which is DPP's criticism of KMT, KMT has sold out its anti-communist ideals, and sold Taiwan to China for its personal benefits.

As of what would happen after KMT dissolves, there are also three answersOne argues that there will still be people who identify with China for cultural or economic reasons. They might start a CPC affiliated party. Another one argues that KMT doesn't represent an ideal for China, but represent Taiwan's "corrupted" interest. They can either stay with KMT, or switch into DPP or become independent. The third one argues that DPP will be corrupted and an even more nationalistic and progressive party will rise.

Today we I watched a program about nearsightedness. It said "northeast Asia " is the epic center of "myopia boom" I thought that's something everybody knows. But the program said only Taiwan noticed the problem long before WHO

One thing I agree with the program is the sleeping schedule. When I worked all night long I felt my nearsightedness worsened.

I also saw a movie on Videoland channel: South Korean movie Battleship Island. I wasn't interested in the movie because they all looked poor and angry. But I guess I saw the scene when they held meeting with candles and it looked good. The movie is about hundreds of Korean coal miners under a Japanese company complained about abuses and decided to hijack a ship to escape. Korean dialogue was dubbed with mandarin. The Japanese dialogue and by Koreans songs were kept. It feels weird hearing the Taiwanese voice actors talking about Korean historical events.

Last week's news. 1. The central government started the childcare facilities and nannies subsidy program. It caused much complaints. Many nannies complained about the license regulations. Many facilities also opted not to join the programs, because the fee charges and teachers to children ratio required by regulations are unsustainable. These facilities are expensive. 2. Fire broke out in the hospice ward in a hospital. 9 died and 11 are critical.